After a series of health problems over the past two years—including a stroke, hip replacement, and a cancer diagnosis—Ruger Winchester, 88, was afraid his racing days were behind him. But last month, when he laced up his trainers and crossed the finish line of the We Are Houston 5K, he realized he was well on his way to a running comeback.
“I really enjoy running,” Winchester told Runner’s World. “It’s a freedom for me. It’s a time when I can think about other things.”
On January 19, Winchester, a retired pastor, finished fourth in his division with a time of 38:39, averaging 12:27 mile pace—good enough to finish in the top 38 percent of the runners.
The performance was a welcome return to competition since he suffered from a stroke in March 2017.
Before then, Winchester was averaging sub-30 finishes for many of his 5K performances. In 2015, he won his age group at the BAA 5K where he finished in 28:45. In the same year, he earned first in his age group at the Biltmore Kiwanis 5K with a time of 29:36. At the 2016 We Are Houston 5K, he finished in 28:19 to place second in the 80+ age group.
Not bad considering he entered his first race at the age of 77.
After his stroke two years ago, though, he had to stop running completely. Then, just a few months later, he started suffering from severe pain in his hip to the point where he could barely walk around the house. In August 2017, he had surgery to replace his hip.
That fall, doctors discovered a nodule in his lung, a diagnosis which turned out to be a metastatic melanoma.
But even in the darkest moments of the diagnosis, Winchester still maintained an optimistic attitude and was quick to remind his family to stay positive.
“He said that it was just a bump in the road,” his daughter, Mary Winchester, said.
For her father to receive the best treatment, Mary helped move him and her mother from their home in North Dakota to Houston, where he began immunotherapy treatment at MD Anderson Cancer Center. So far, he has responded well, and expects to end treatment in May.
Soon after his move in the fall of 2017, Winchester started walking again. It didn’t take long before he was back to running. On December 1, 2017, he set out on his first run since the stroke, a monumental moment that Mary flew into town for.
Just over one year after he started running again, Winchester was ready to make the return to racing. He entered this year’s 5K in Houston with the goal of breaking 44 minutes in the race. With the help of competitors surrounding him, as well as his daughter—who flew in from Boulder, Colorado to help pace—he was able to shatter that goal by more than five minutes.
“It was a comeback, and I’m going to continue to keep running and expect to do better,” he said. “It was a good run.”
In fact, he said, he wants to get even faster.
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And he has the training routine to make it happen. These days, Winchester runs five to six days a week on the treadmill at his retirement home. He usually runs between 30 and 45 minutes at a time, and plans to incorporate a total body strength routine that involves push-ups, sit-ups, and swimming, too—all done with the goal of getting faster and staying healthy with age.
“I’m competing for myself, to keep myself in better health,” Winchester said. “I can do it so I need to do it.”
Taylor Dutch is a sports and fitness writer living in Chicago; a former NCAA track athlete, Taylor specializes in health, wellness, and endurance sports coverage. Her work has appeared in SELF, Runner’s World, Bicycling, Outside, and Podium Runner. When she’s not writing, Taylor volunteers as a coach to up-and-coming runners in the Chicago area.
